Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Each morning when we rise up out of bed, a lot of us prioritize what we are going to do with our day. Certain things are more important than others, and will be placed on the top of our list. When I took math in elementary school, I can remember learning about the greater-than symbol. It looks like the letter “v” laying on its side, and whenever you see this mathematical symbol, it means that one of the numbers is greater than the other.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Of all the commandments of God, there is one that stands out above all of the rest. Our love for God has to be greater than anything or anyone in this world. This love has to be so strong, that nothing can shake it, so high that nothing can come in between it, and so firm that nothing can break it.
Matthew 22 ³⁶ Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
It makes sense that if God is not first in your life, then He will become second, and when this happens, all kinds of problems can arise. Faithfulness to His teachings can be put on the back burner, and the decisions that you make during your day are not dictated by love and loyalty to His will. When the heart is not ruled by a love for God, it will become ruled by others instead. Whenever people make choices that go against conscience and the teachings of scripture, they just violated the first commandment, and the love of the Father is not in them.
1 John 2 ¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Obviously the scriptures teach us to love one another, but that is secondary in comparison to the first and great commandment. People all over the world love each other, even sinners love other sinners. People in false religions love one another. Even in the days of Noah people were getting married, but the flood came upon them and destroyed them all. So we learn that loving one another is not enough to get us to heaven. Remember that God placed the commandments in an order for a reason, and to love Him is the greatest commandment of all. If He is not the greatest love in your life, your heart will be led astray from perfect obedience to His will. The proof that someone truly loves God, will be evidenced through their faithful obedience to His commands and purpose.
John 14 ²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. ²² Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? ²³ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ²⁴ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15
When God is the greatest love of our life, we will humbly submit to His teachings, and not allow ourselves to be led astray by others. God is watching our obedience, and He will reward accordingly.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
To love God is to obey biblical truth.
Romans 2 ⁷ To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: ⁸ But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, ⁹ Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
¹⁰ But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
We must never love anything greater than the Lord Jesus, not a mother, not a son, and not even a woman.
1 Kings 11 ⁴ For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
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⁹ And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
Matthew 12 ⁴⁶ While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. ⁴⁷ Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. ⁴⁸ But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
⁴⁹ And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! ⁵⁰ For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Timothy was chosen by the Apostle Paul to be a soldier, appointed to certain tasks and duties regarding the church. He had proven himself faithful numerous times, showing through his perfect obedience that God was his greatest love. His desire to please God ruled his heart, unlike Titus who walked off and completely abandoned his duties. God must be first in our hearts in order to reap His blessings and rewards.
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:12
As I’ve always said, love is a very strong emotion but you had better make sure that it’s placed on the right thing. Misplaced love will always take you away from God’s calling, His purpose, and His commands. The heart of Judas was ruled by a love for money. The heart of Lot’s wife was ruled by a love to return back to Sodom and Gomorrah. Adam listened to his own wife rather than God, because of which they were expelled from Paradise.
In order to do the right thing and to stay on the right path, we must become obedient to the will of God, which will only happen when you love Him above and beyond all others, and He becomes….
….. Greater Than
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.❤️
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